196 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Referring to Mr. Kotinsky's suggestion that the colony of 

 beetles found on plum trees might be a cross between Chiloco- 

 r2is bivulnerus and C. similis, Mr. Ulke stated that there has 

 yet been no authentic record of hybridization or crossing among 

 beetles. Dr. Ashmead said he had found Chilocorus bivulnerus 

 extremely abundant on Lecanium on orange in Florida, and also 

 on oak, and that he had observed strings of pupse on the Spanish 

 moss, showing that this species is sometimes a prolific breeder 

 and has the habit of congregating in numbers for pupation. 



Mr. Benton exhibited a beehive to show the ingenious method 

 by which certain varieties of honey bees protect their hives from 

 the entrance of insect enemies. These defenses consist of a row 

 of stout, columnar pillars, made of gnawings of wax mixed with 

 propolis and built in the hive entrance. They were made by 

 some bees recently imported from the Island of Cyprus. Mr. 

 Benton pointed out that all Oriental races of honey bees, in con 

 tradistinction to those of Europe, construct th'ese defenses, which 

 serve to prevent the entrance of the death's-head moth (Sphinx 

 utropos] and the Oriental wasp ( Vespa orientalis], two insects 

 which are injurious to honey bees in the Orient, the former by 

 occasionally robbing them of their honey and the latter by prey 

 ing upon the bees themselves. When imported into this country, 

 where they are free from these two insect enemies, the bees keep 

 up the habit of building these defenses for two or three seasons 

 only, and then abandon it. The Carniolan, Austrian, and Ger 

 man bees do not make the defenses, either in this country or in 

 their home in Europe. Mr. Benton referred, in this connection, 

 to the curious defenses made by the stingless honey bees (Mcli- 

 pona and Trigona} and which formed the subject of a paper 

 presented by him some years ago before the Society.* In that 

 paper he had alluded also to the entrance defenses made by cer 

 tain varieties of Apis in ell if era. 



Mr. Currie read extracts from letters received from Mr. 

 Schwarz at Cayamas, Cuba, and Mr. Barber, at Brownsville, 

 Texas, describing entomological conditions in those localities. 

 Mr. Schwarz mentioned in his letter having secured at Cardenas, 



* Proc. Ent. Soc., Wash., m, pp. 18-23, March S, 1894 (paper read 

 March 9, 1893). 



